


Years Later

by Moonlight (DreamingMoonlight)



Series: LJ Fic Meme Collection [2]
Category: Final Fantasy XIII
Genre: Author posting back catalogue to AO3, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-14
Updated: 2010-10-14
Packaged: 2018-10-19 01:20:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,590
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10629201
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DreamingMoonlight/pseuds/Moonlight
Summary: "Dammit," Hope muttered to himself.  He was pretty sure he finally had to admit that he was lost somewhere in the middle of the Archylte Steppe and had been for the last hour.  "Light is never going to let me forget this, either."





	

**Author's Note:**

> Set post-game with a certain amount of headcanon/fanon thrown in. (My Hope is a bit of a goober, I admit. But who isn't a goober when they're in love?) This... kind of got away from me? Also, more internal monologue-ish than I was originally aiming for, but EXCUSE ME I AM NEW I AM VERY NERVOUS YOU ALL SHUT UP. For a LJ fic meme.

"Dammit," Hope muttered to himself. He was pretty sure he finally had to admit that he was lost somewhere in the middle of the Archylte Steppe and had been for the last hour. "Light is never going to let me forget this, either."

Maybe it was stupid, maybe he knew he was getting in over his head being out here by himself, but she couldn't treat him like he was fourteen forever! Three years ago, he undertood and, even if he'd had to grow up faster than most back then, he sort of got it. He could wait.

But now he was almost eighteen and he could take care of himself in a fight; the remains of the Cocoon army certainly thought he was capable enough to need a babysitter when he'd joined after their city fell and they needed people to navigate this alien new world. Hell, every time they visited Sazh, Serah, and Snow, Hope could see that even they all knew he was an adult now. Everyone saw how much older he was now.

Everyone except Lightning.

She still treated him like a kid, even though Hope was taller than her now--he would never reach Snow's height or breadth, but he had filled out well, Three years of monster killing would do that to you--and he could _see_ that flicker of something more in her eyes before she viciously smothered it and ruffled his hair to end a disagreement between them or tuned his protests out and overrid his complaints.

"Dammit," he muttered again, kicking the still fresh corpse of the Gorgonopsid that he'd taken down _by himself_ , thanks.

But he was definitely lost. The last Cie'th Stone he'd seen had been about an hour ago and he wasn't really sure which direction he'd headed after he'd chased a half-finished Hybrid Flora every which way until he'd finally pinned it down and killed it. The sun was setting, so he was pretty sure he was somewhere east of the Vallis Media, though. At least he wasn't lost there _again_ , that would have just been embarrassing.

The thing was that, he could come back with his bags stuffed to overflowing with pelts and crystals and claws he'd gathered from every dangerous animal on the Archylte Steppe, even take a chunk of Scarletite from an Adamanchelid. He could come back with hardly a scratch on him--okay, so, his healing magic still far-outranked anyone else's in the army and it was nothing to soothe away any knicks or dents or even a nasty gash along the way, but the point was that he didn't have to be shoved to the back of the party to avoid being injured anymore. He could heroically stride over the hill that flanked their new town, the sun at his back, the wind dramatically in his hair, and his back tossed casually over one shoulder and Lightning would _still_ read him the riot act for stomping off into the mountains after their fight.

Hope scowled at the matted skin of the Gorgonopsid and the stench of blood that was now drifting across the plains with the shift of the wind. Already he could see several packs of Goblins looming on the horizon, waiting for an opening--either for him or the kill, it didn't really matter. He cleaned his boomerang off on its pelt, it was too scarred and torn to be any use anymore, so he'd taken one of its fangs instead, and left the rest to be scavenged. It was probably at least two hours' walk back to the new Cocoon village, but he'd figure it out somehow. Probably.

Dammit.

*

A trained soldier never paced. It accomplished nothing and there were better uses of her time--like the Rakshasa (and the Flans that followed them around) that had been coming ever closer to the village late at night, each time they were getting a little bolder. So far they were only after food supplies, but it was only a matter of time before some idiot who wasn't thinking strayed too far on a midnight stroll and got himself mauled to death. Thinning the ranks of them out now would save them a lot of headache down the road.

"Dammit," Lightning muttered, her fingers clenched angrily around her arms, hard enough to leave matching angry marks along her skin. "He knew it was dangerous!"

She had two choices--wait here and do nothing, like she had been for the past few hours (the new higher ups in the Guardian Corps had tried to trap her into doing reports and helping finish mapping out and investigating of the ruins in the Yaschas Massif, of all the assinine things to do with her time)... or she could get her things and go after the idiot who was probably holed up under a pile of rocks while a group of Navidon lurked nearby while he had to wait them out.

Maybe _that_ would teach him not to go off on his own. Certainly something needed to get it through his thick skull.

"....dammit," she hissed and went to get her gear.

*

Hope was sure was he was finally headed in the right direction, he was pretty sure he recognized that small copse of trees that was about twenty minutes away from the village. There was a patch of these small, little flowers growing there that he'd never seen anymore else--they had the softest dusky pink petals he'd ever seen and he smiled every time he saw them. It hadn't taken long before he'd unofficially made it his get-away place. Every kid needed one--even if Hope actually hadn't needed to run there in almost a year.

The sound of battle didn't carry well in the rocky cliffs around him, so he was practically on top of the fight before he heard it. Hope rushed to help, it sounded like a Sahagin, which had some nasty water spells that could overwhelm you if you weren't careful and didn't have a quick fire or lightning spell caster with quick reflexes nearby--

Hope skidded to a halt in the small clearing and saw that he hadn't needed to worry. Lightning had it down to its last legs, her graceful form neatly gliding out of the reach of its wings as it took one last ragged swipe at her. Then she darted in for the kill, her blade slicing cleanly across its neck, and the creature crashed to the ground alongside the rest of its pack.

He hadn't even bothered to get his boomerang out, hadn't needed to cast Haste or Shell on her before her enemies were dead and she was casually flicking her weapon back into its sheath. She wasn't even winded.

And he was really glad to have someone like her to protect their homes, to teach him how to be a better soldier. An, even if he did sometimes feel like he could never be as good as she was, that he'd never win her respect as a warrior, he couldn't help but fall for her all over again every time he watched her.

Or even when she glanced up and saw him standing off to her side, a brief flash of something crossing her face before her brows drew together and her mouth twisted furiously.

Her eyes burned to look at, as beautiful and deadly as the rest of her, Hope thought distantly, maybe feeling a little faint--he could admit to himself--but he forced himself to keep her gaze.

He couldn't back down now, dammit.

*

She wasn't going to give him any leeway, dammit.

No matter if the flash of relief that went through her (he was fine, he was fine, he wasn't dead somewhere, torn apart by god knows what, in the dark and alone, he wasn't even hurt superficially, _he was fine_ \--) almost knocked the breath out of her, now was not the time to be gentle with him.

"Finished with your tantrum now?" she asked tightly, not bothering to feel guilty at the slight wince on his face. (He was fine this time. This time. But he'd proven over and over again how stupid he could be. She had to be hard with him to save him. That's what soldiers did.) She turned her back on him and scanned the darkness--they were maybe ten minutes away from the village if they didn't run into trouble or get distracted on the way there. "Let's go."

His hand was gentle on her elbow as he stopped her. "Light..." She glanced down at his fingers wrapped around her, going the entire way around her arm now, so much bigger than his hands used to be. He was so much older now, he'd seen so much more, and he was trying so hard to be her equal. And yet she could still break each one of his fingers with a sharp series of twists, she could have him on the ground and immoblized in less time than it took him to breathe her name in that soft voice of his.

"Light, I'm fine," he said softly, almost pleading and guilty and everything else that she didn't want to deal with. "I can take care of myself, really. I'm almost eighteen now and--"

She didn't hurt him, not really, but when she whipped around to face him, twisting his wrist back at an uncomfortable angle, the usual anger flared back up in his eyes. She always made her point this way and eventually it would have to sink in. She was so tired of this particular fight.

"You think that just because you reach a certain number of years that you can suddenly take care of yourself?" She nearly flung his arm back in his face. "That's the thinking of a child. You got lucky the Adamantoise didn't grind you into the dirt like a bug. You could have been--"

She'd seen so much in her time protecting these people, these fragile, stupid idiots who act like they're practically begging something to kill them, and she just didn't need to lose any more of them. Why was that so far for any of them, for him, to understand? She--

And Hope was staring at her. Staring at her with that grown up (and yet still so young and open and trusting and _naive_ ) face and those grown up eyes and she just wanted--

She just wanted him to be safe. _Safe_.

"Light...."

She hated the sound of her name like that, all the anger gone from it and he was thinking dangerous, stupid thoughts again. Stupid thoughts that could never--

She could break every bone in his body, her reflexes were much faster than his, and she could see it coming. The anger leaving his frame, the soft doe-eyed look that replaced it, the way his hands so slowly reached out and curled around her arms. She could have knocked the wind out of him with one blow, she could have had her blade at his throat, she could have dug her fist into his kidneys, she could have brought her knee right up between his legs, she could even have snapped his neck like a twig.

She could think of a hundred ways to stop him.

But somehow she didn't.

Hope's mouth on hers was light at first, he had to lean down to touch his lips to hers, questioning and tentative. She didn't move, she had fought against him on this for so long, knew she should keep fighting, but he was safe now and unhurt and she was just so--

When he pressed more firmly against her and his hands slid around to her sides and his tongue flickered softly across her mouth, she just couldn't protest. She just couldn't stop herself from pressing back just the smallest bit, there was just too much in her-- In her mind, she desperately wanted to think, but that wasn't quite right.

Hope made a very faint keening noise against her, his fingers flexing like he didn't know what to do with them, and she could feel everything he had tried to keep pent up, nearly at some breaking point, and this was when she should stop it. It wasn't fair to do this and she--

Lightning opened her mouth, against everything she'd told herself over and over and _over_ , and kissed him back. It was too much and he was _here_ and solid and real and unhurt and she wanted to pull him to her and make sure he was always, always safe and good soldiers didn't have weaknesses like this, they didn't--

And then Hope figured out _something_ to do with his hands, he hesitantly slid one slowly up her side, leaving plenty of time to push him away, like he expected it at any moment, and he cupped her breast through her heavy fighting clothes, and she knew she should remove his hand, put a stop to this, that he'd taken it too far, but she couldn't, because she was too busy falling apart, too.

She could feel him practically vibrating against her, could certainly feel how badly he wanted her as he kissed her harder, his mouth working hungrily against hers. She responded in kind, her fingers tangled in his hair to pull him down to open his mouth further to her, and she pressed flush against him, gripping him hard.

She wanted this, she had wanted it for awhile now. And he was going to be intolerable to deal with now.

Dammit.

*

 _Extra:_  
Eventually, she managed to put the breaks on things--they were close to town, but still out in the wilds of Gran Pulse, where distraction would get you killed--but not before she'd gotten her hands under his shirt (and halfway up his back and nearly to his shoulders, he was so much wider than her now) and his hands had gotten halfway up her skirt, both their hair a mess and lips puffy from the abuse.

Hope dropped his head to her shoulder, panting softly against her collarbone, and she let his hands linger on her hips. She couldn't really complain, her own were still woven through his soft hair and there was a vague ache in her that she didn't look too closely at.

"I'm sorry," he said into the crook of her neck. She didn't say anything just yet. "It was stupid, going off like that. I just wanted..."

They were quiet for a minute, Lightning let him work through it on his own.

"....well, you know. Just... it was stupid. I'm sorry."

Lightning hid her smile in his hair--she couldn't expect eloquence from someone who stomped off into the Archylte Steppe by himself, after all. But it was a start.

She disentangled herself from Hope and straightened out her clothes, but gave him a sharp sideways quirk of her mouth. "It was stupid... but that's part of growing up. Learning from the stupid things you do." She put on a deliberately thoughtful look. "I guess it would be a good time to intensify your training so you're more capable. You'll need to practice your Cure spells, too." _For when I pummel the hell out of you during 'training', to make sure you can handle anything,_ she didn't need to add.

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Hope's shoulders slump and she firmly stepped on the urge to smile when she heard him mutter, "....dammit."


End file.
